Series · 7 episodes · 3:16
Great books in four ideas
The classics everyone quotes and few have read, from Sun Tzu to Orwell, in the order they were written.
Play from episode 1- 1
0:28Sun Tzu's Art of War in four ideas
Sun Tzu's classic in four ideas: win without fighting, know both sides, wage war by deception, and move like water around the ground you meet.
- 2
0:28Plato's cave allegory, explained
Plato's cave: chained prisoners mistake shadows for the world. One climbs to the sunlight, then returns to people who cannot believe him.
- 3
0:28Marcus Aurelius' Meditations in four ideas
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations in four ideas: the line between what you control and what you do not, obstacles as the way, the view from above, and memento mori.
- 4
0:28Machiavelli's The Prince in four ideas
Machiavelli's 1513 manual in four ideas: hold power by skill against fortune's floods, be feared without hatred, and seem virtuous while staying armed.
- 5
0:28Adam Smith's invisible hand, explained
Adam Smith's pin factory, the self-interest of the butcher and baker, and the invisible hand that turns private gain into public plenty.
- 6
0:28Thoreau's Walden in four ideas
Thoreau's Walden in four ideas: a $28 cabin by the pond, the four necessities, the real cost of a thing measured in life, and the lake as earth's eye.
- 7
0:28Orwell's 1984 in four ideas
Orwell's 1984 in four ideas: telescreens and Big Brother, doublethink, Newspeak shrinking the language, and a Party that seeks power for its own sake.